Buyers Are Coming Off the Sidelines: Home Purchases Just Jumped 60% Month-Over-Month

One of Canada's largest mortgage brokerages, True North Mortgage, reported a roughly 60% month-over-month uptick in home purchase transactions at the end of June. CEO Dan Eisner said buyers are "tired of trying to time the market" and are pulling the trigger at current rates and current prices. The surge lines up with what Greater Vancouver's June sales data showed: home sales up 9.6% year-over-year, the first time in years all three property types posted gains at the same time. After two years of sideline sitting, the wait-and-see phase is finally breaking. Sellers who priced sharply through June are getting bids. Buyers who kept waiting for the bottom are now competing against a wave of newly active buyers doing the same thing.

Millennium Line Extension Is Quietly Reshaping the Vancouver Condo Map

Condo values within 500 metres of the new Millennium Line extension stations have appreciated 6% to 9% faster than the regional average since the line opened in late 2025. The biggest winners are Fairview, South Granville, and Arbutus. For buyers, the message is straightforward: transit proximity is now doing more heavy lifting on price than any single neighbourhood trend. For sellers within that 500-metre radius, your unit is probably worth more than the last comparable sale on your street. For buyers priced out of Kits and Point Grey, the new stops are opening up genuine value in areas that were until recently considered second-tier. The market is drawing a new map of Vancouver, and it runs along the SkyTrain.

The Ceasefire Is Over — And So Is Your Mortgage Rate Relief

Trump declared the Iran ceasefire "over" yesterday. US strikes on Kharg Island — Iran's main oil export terminal — landed July 7 after Iran attacked three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Oil jumped 3%, the Dow dropped 600 points, and Canadian bond yields (the same ones that set fixed mortgage rates) climbed with them.For BC homebuyers, this ends a quiet stretch of good news. Through June, oil had drifted back into the low-$70s, bond yields eased, and fixed 5-year mortgage rates worked their way down to around 4.34% at the best Big Bank pricing. That trajectory just reversed.What it means this week:If you rate-locked in June, you probably saved yourself money. Sit tight. If you're shopping fixed rates right now, don't wait — the window that opened last month may already be closing. If you're a seller counting on cheaper mortgages driving buyer demand this fall, reset expectations. The rate math may not improve for a while, and how long depends on a Middle East ceasefire that just failed once.Nothing about the news is BC-specific, but everything about the news lands in Vancouver mortgage math. The war restarted 8,000 kilometres away. Your rate lock in Burnaby feels it by Thursday.